For the last five years, UK’s recruiting class has directly dictated the team’s expectations. The better the freshmen coming to Lexington, the higher the Cats would land in the preseason rankings.

That is until now, when the No. 2 recruiting class in the country is filled with 2014 high school seniors who will begin next season as relative afterthoughts.

When freshmen guards Andrew and Aaron Harrison announced Friday they would return for another year, head coach John Calipari immediately found himself with the most talented team of his career.

The expectations, somehow, will be greater than that of this season, when the sport’s best recruiting class ever sparked some 40-0 discussions. Everyone believed that nearly all of the players would be “one-and-dones.” The hype that will surround Calipari’s sixth UK team is unique given how unexpected the returners’ decisions were.

Even after the Cats went to the 2014 National Championship game, the NBA Draft stock of several players had already shrunk during an underwhelming regular season. So when the Harrisons, along with fellow freshmen Dakari Johnson and Marcus Lee and sophomores Alex Poythress and Willie Cauley-Stein, decided to return, another talented, young team became a talented one with championship experience.

The Cats won’t just be skilled at every position. They’ll be the biggest team in college basketball. Only two of UK’s top 11 players will be shorter than 6 feet 6 inches. Five of those 11 are 6 feet 9 inches or taller. No exaggeration, no hyperbole — the Cats will be bigger than many NBA teams.

All that talent comes with the memory of a

national title run that fell just six points short of a national championship. Those returning players have all mentioned their No. 1 goal — the desire to overcome the championship hurdle that eluded them in 2014.

The Cats have something that has been lacking in the Calipari era. Sure, with nine McDonald’s All-Americans to go with a projected 2014 NBA lottery pick (Cauley-Stein), UK will be historically talented.

But to go with that talent is a wealth of experience. Six returning players have played in the Final Four, not including Cauley-Stein, who was out with an injury.

This summer will be an excruciating wait for UK fans. The team that takes the floor in October at Rupp Arena will be better prepared than any in recent memory in Lexington.

With so many heralded and returning players together, they should start the season faster than any in Calipari’s career.

Even so, those lofty expectations are a shock to those who believed the 2013-14 Cats were as good as advertised. So instead of another mass exodus to the NBA, Big Blue Nation will cheer on the most complete team at UK in years.

Calipari’s best players will be sophomores. It isn’t the norm, and that’s a good thing.

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